More than 4,000 applications for spring 2026 were found to be fraudulent, according to a presentation by Dr. Cristina Martinez, acting dean of enrollment services, at the Feb. 18 board meeting.
Martinez said the artificial intelligence software LightLeap AI has improved the accuracy of El Camino College’s enrollment numbers since it was first deployed in the spring 2025 semester by successfully identifying fraudulent applications and enrollees.
“Since implementing LightLeap AI, we have been able to prevent unauthorized applications from entering our systems, and we are seeing a more natural enrollment curve this year,” Martinez said.
Fraudulent applications and admissions have been a prevalent problem at community colleges for the past several years. According to a previous report from The Union, 116 community colleges across California have begun deploying LightLeap AI to tackle this problem.
Communications director Kelly Webb said community colleges using the artificial intelligence software have had success catching fraudulent applications.
“We’ve noticed a significant reduction in the number of fraudulent admissions, not just at El Camino, but at other universities that have implemented this type of technology,” Webb said.
Carlos Lopez, vice president for academic affairs, said ECC is in a better position regarding enrollment than last year, when admissions fraud was more prevalent.
The metric used to measure student enrollment is Full-Time Equivalent Students (FTES). Spring 2026 enrollment is expected to reach 7,305 FTES.
ECC currently has about 6,800 FTES, Lopez said.
Student enrollment is critical to managing ECC’s current budget deficit of about $4 million, according to Chief Technology Officer Loïc Audusault.
In his budget presentation to the board, Mr. Auduso explained how ECC’s deficit management currently hinges on three conditions. They are: achieving projected enrollment goals as measured by FTES, continuing state funding through Prop. 98, and maintaining strong spending controls.
“The administration continues to strengthen non-recurrence, monitoring, coordination, and remediation mechanisms designed to detect and address these discrepancies early on,” Auduso said.
Failure to meet these conditions risks further budget restrictions, including hourly staff, student workers, bulk orders, meetings/travel, and potentially significant hiring freezes, according to the presentation.
Other important highlights of the conference include:
- An update on the Ministry of Chemistry’s building restoration and construction efforts was on the agenda, and pursuant to Item 17.4, it was advised that construction efforts would be halted pending approval from the State Architect’s Office.
- More than 10 fire alarm panels at ECC will be renovated after a renewal contract with MDC engineers was passed. The $168,000 contract includes the development and implementation of a new system intended to bridge all fire alarm panels within a single network.
The next Board meeting will be held on Wednesday, March 18th at 5:00 p.m. in the Kenneth A. Brown Board Room in the Administration Building.
